Tarot: The Roadmap of Your Life

By Mita Bhan

Today, Tarot is no longer a mysterious word. Everyone has heard of it, seen it somewhere, or knows someone who’s either reading or has been read. At their simplest level, these beautifully illustrated decks of 78 cards represent all the possible cycles of life and experiences that one might encounter. The visuals contain symbolism that is deeply imprinted on our subconscious and collective mind, and these symbols draw out what is buried in our own minds and souls and bring it to light where we can examine it.

Deriving its name from the Italian word “torres” meaning the flow of the river, a tarot reading is like a snapshot of life’s energies, ebbing and flowing within all of us. Sometimes we are upbeat and our energies are radiant and pulsating; sometimes we are confused and energies appear scattered. When we’re down, our auras appear dense and clogged. Somehow, the cards pick up on our energies and mirror them back to us.

Unlike astrology, which is based on the position of planets at the time of our birth, or palmistry, which is based on the lines in our hands, Tarot is based on present moment energies—what is going on in your mind, heart, and soul, right now as you read the cards. The past provides answers to our conditions, teachings from our mistakes and experiences that have shaped us. The future is simply a possibility, a mystery, a blur of words and visuals. It is the right now that contains all the power, and the Tarot taps into that power effectively.

Traditionalist Tarot readers tell us that the Tarot is not fortune telling. It is not about tomorrow or when. It’s a snapshot of life, right now, and any possible outcomes the reader sees are possibilities only. Your future depends on your past and current actions, and you can change your outcome by changing your actions.

A good time to visit a Tarot reader is when you have a decision to make and want information about your choices, when you need some direction about your career, or when you want to improve a troublesome relationship. The Tarot tells you how to help yourself, why something may be happening, and what may happen IF you apply its wisdom. I’ve had people ask about why they’re not getting the job that was predicted for them when they haven’t even updated their resume or contacted placement agents! The Tarot can only point to a particular direction. The will to change and the required effort belongs to the individual alone to fulfill their truest potential.

People ask me if they can change the outcome of their reading, and the answer is absolutely. Your future is not predetermined, and you have free will, along with the right and responsibility to exercise it. A Tarot reading should never be accepted as an absolute prediction of things to come, but rather as an encouragement if you are on the right path or a warning of what may come if you continue down a destructive path. Tarot readings should be considered tools for making positive changes in your own life and for understanding the influences at work in any situation. We all have the ultimate responsibility for using this information and making our own decisions.

We as human beings have the right of free will. The right to choose our own attitude. The right to ignore a reading. The right to change the way we look at things right now. A reading may reveal two people in love at that present moment with a possibility of marriage, but if any one partner chooses to exert his free will and cheat or walk away, the outcome does change.

And finally, what can these cards do and not do for us?

The cards give you a picture of unseen influences, patterns of behavior, obstacles, and strengths. A reading can show you where you are now, where you've come from, where you want to be, and how to get there. Since the future is not a fixed event, the Tarot can reveal a possible outcome if you apply the wisdom revealed in the spread of cards.

On the other hand, a Tarot reading or Tarot reader for that matter, cannot run your life or make every decision for you; ultimately we are all the masters of our own destinies. Traditionally not a predictor, the Tarot cannot give exact times and dates, but it can reveal broad time frames, such as “within three months.”

The secret to a good reading lies not in the deck, but in the questions you ask and in the reader’s knowledge of the cards and intuitive abilities to interpret the cards and provide answers. There are no right answers in the Tarot; a good reading just feels right in our hearts and souls.

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Tarot Reflections is published by the American Tarot Association - Copyright (C) 2009